[BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Steam-poered treasure moored at False Creek

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Most museum people know that when anyone says "last", "first", "oldest",
"biggest" etc. one should usually run screaming in the opposite
direction. - EXCEPT when referring to New Westminster as the FIRST
Capital of BC (Derby was proposed but not actually accepted as real
estate investors found out) and as the FIRST city (not first community
that is now called a city) in Western Canada (by Royal decree on 20 July
1859) and Irving House is the OLDEST known INTACT house in the BC Lower
Mainland (we know of one a year older but now cut in half and on two
different properties). 

 

The writer for the newspaper below said the SS master was "The last
registered steam-powered boat in the country" Here are some that come to
mind and there might be more. 

 

1.      CSS Acadia Built 1912-1913. Retired 1969. Museum ship 1982 to
present. She is afloat and therefore registered I presume.

2.      RMS Segwin aka RMS Segwun Built 1887 - 1925. Retired 1958.
Restored 1972-1981. Operating in the Muskoka Lakes area in Ontario. 

3.      SS Master Built 1922. Retired 1959. Restored and operating. 

4.      Samson V Built 1937. Retired 1980. Museum since 1984. Not
running but still afloat and registered.  New Westminster, BC and under
my responsibility for maintenance. 

 

Colin MacGregor Stevens,

Manager,

New Westminster Museum and Archives,

302 Royal Avenue,

New Westminster, BC,

V3L 1H7, Canada

 

Phone Office:    604-527-4639

Work Cellular :  604-830-6965

Fax:                    604-527-4641

E-mail: cstevens at newwestcity.ca <mailto:cstevens at newwestcity.ca>  

Web Site: www.newwestminster.ca <http://www.newwestminster.ca>  

Normal work week: Sun-Thurs 9-5, OFF Fri-Sat.

 

The New Westminster Museum and Archives (NWMA) consists of:

   * City's Museum (est. 1950)

   * City's Archives

   * Irving House (built 1865)

   * Maintenance of the Samson V Maritime Museum (paddlewheel ship built
1937; museum since 1984) 

 

From: Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. [mailto:bcma at lists.vvv.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 8:50 AM
To: bcma at lists.vvv.com
Subject: [BCMA] CMA Clip Serv: Steam-poered treasure moored at False
Creek

 

Steam-powered treasure moored in False Creek 

Built in 1922, S.S. Master is the last of its kind 

Cheryl Rossi, Vancouver Courier, Wednesday, July 20, 2011 

 

The last registered steam-powered boat in the country has been moored
since Canada Day in False Creek in front of the market at Granville
Island. 

 

The S.S. Master Society finally secured a berth in the high-traffic zone
so more visitors can see an artifact of B.C.'s history. 

 

The Master previously spent its summers near the Vancouver Maritime
Museum. 

 

Russ Copeland, volunteer skipper of the Master, says the steamship must
be visible and running. "Once this is gone, they'll never see another
steamboat again," he said. 

 

The white paint on the exterior of the 89-year-old heritage tug is
scabbed and worn, but the wheelhouse is fitted with Douglas fir and
brass. Copeland steers the steamship tug. Two volunteer crew drip oil
onto the engine and brave 120-degree Fahrenheit temperatures while twin
furnaces heat a 10-ton boiler to create the steam that pushes the
pistons. Filling the steamship's tanks with water takes two to three
days using a garden hose. 

 

Renowned designer and builder Arthur Moscrop built the steam tug in
False Creek in 1922, just before tugs were built for or converted to
diesel power. The Master is the last survivor in original condition of
more than 300 steam-powered wooden tugs built in the province that used
to tow log booms, barges of coal, oil, gravel and limestone along the
west coast. 

 

Its engine was one of a series of 36 pairs built in 1916 in Scotland for
use in the Royal Navy minesweepers of the First World War. "It still
works a hundred per cent," Copeland said. 

 

The Master worked local waters until it was laid up in 1959. It suffered
weather and vandalism until 1962, when members of the World Ship Society
of Western Canada, a branch of an English organization of ship lovers,
rescued and restored the Master as a tribute to the tugboat industry of
B.C. 

 

When the World Ship Society found it increasingly difficult to care for
the Master under its charter in 1971, the Society for the Preservation
of the Steam Towboat Master, now the S.S. Master Society, formed to
maintain it. 

 

Members of the society nearly rebuilt the ship's hull and machinery in
the early 1980s and the Master moored at Expo 86. 

 

Copeland, who grew up in a lighthouse on Merry Island near Sechelt and
worked as an RCMP officer in the marine section, saw the Master at Expo
and decided more than 15 years ago to devote time to the boat's
preservation. It conjured up childhood memories. "We used to go out and
meet some of these boats and have coffee in [the galley]. The cook
always had pie for us kids. We'd be down in the engine room and all that
stuff," he said. 

 

The 71-year-old resident of Ladner will guide the Master to Steveston in
early August for a heritage boat show and might make a 10-hour trip to
Victoria in September. 

 

The Master is usually open to visitors Saturdays, or when a volunteer is
on board, until September. 

 

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